Actor VK Naresh, the President of the Movie Artists Association, today held a presser and described the achievements of MAA under his leadership since 2019.

Addressing the media on Saturday, Naresh said that Naga Babu's comments against the current office-bearers are unfortunate. Naresh further said that he and his fellow office-bearers won with a majority in 2019 and have brought into effect several substantial changes at MAA.

The senior actor said that he is a man of action, not a man of mere words. I was born in the industry. MAA has always been at the forefront whenever its members faced any trouble under my tenure. Prakash Raj is a good friend of mine. Three months back, when he called me, he informed me that he would be running for President. I told him that anybody who acts in Telugu movies can run for the post, Naresh said.

Naresh iterated that MAA is not a partisan outfit. We always keep our doors open to new entrants, he added. He drove home the message that biggies such as Chiranjeevi, Krishnam Raju and Krishna have worked hard to make MAA an entity to reckon with. Krishnam Raju garu today told me that MAA is a behemoth that can't be dragged down by anybody, Naresh said.

There are 914 lifetime members in MAA. There are 29 associate members and 18 senior citizens. We have given a life insurance facility to 728 members by going to their house. We have given almost Rs 50 lakh to the families of deceased MAA members during my tenure. About 314 members have received health insurance. Eligible members are getting a monthly pension of Rs 6,000. Lifetime membership fee has been reduced from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 90,000. During the coronavirus crisis, MAA has received donations to the tune of Rs 30 lakh. Rs 10 lakh was given by Jeevitha. We have also made a contribution to the Corona Crisis Charity from our funds. The office-bearers at MAA are ready to tender resignation if the need be. We have never sought any positions. Yet, fingers have been raised at us. We shall not bow down. We will continue to go ahead with a vision, he added.